Director Tsui Hark has succeeded in creating a lasting impression on viewers with many of his wuxia films, including “New Dragon Gate Inn”. But will his new film “Flying Swords of Dragon Gate” be as successful as its prequel?

Orange Sky-Golden Harvest announced a series of classic film remakes for 2012. The first film will be the Cecilia Cheung-Richie Jen “Fly Me to Polaris”. No casting has been made yet. Also on the list of planned remakes: Stephen Chow’s “Fight Back to School”, “Tokyo Raiders” and “Marry a Rich Man”. (Sina)

Shu Qi, best actress of the Golden Horse Awards, plays twin sisters who fall in love with a stage actor portrayed by Shawn Yue. The two sisters struggle with the discovery that they’ve slept with the same man.

“The Flowers of War” bested “Flying Swords of Dragon Gate” at the mainland box office over first four-day run, by both admissions and box office income. Zhang Yimou’s “The Flowers of War” opened to the No.1 place of mainland box office with $24.07 million over four days, while Tsui Hark’s “Flying Swords of Dragon Gate”, which opened 4-hour earlier on the same day last Thursday, seconded the ranking with $22.42 million by Sunday night.

Director Sun Zhou’s latest romance “I Do” released a batch of new still photos featuring four leading actresses of the movie recently. Up and coming actress Li Bingbing performs as the leading character in the movie — a left-over business woman who insists to find her true love disregarding her growing age and the pressure from her parents

While Miriam is elated with her pregnancy, she is also fraught with worries.

In an earlier test, the singer was told that her baby faces a high risk of Down Syndrome. The singer has been advised to take a further test. However the test comes with an average risk of 1% of having a miscarriage.

It was rumoured that despite having her own manager, Hannah needs to get the green light from Jay before accepting a job. She is also not allowed to wear revealing clothes, or be intimate with other male celebrities on set.

The 39-year-old bus driver living in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, developed symptoms on December 21 and was admitted to a hospital on December 25 because of severe pneumonia, the official Xinhua news agency said.

He died in the early afternoon of multiple organ failure, having tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the report added.

Beijing had sought the deportation of Lai Changxing for years, accusing him of running a multi-billion dollar smuggling ring in the southeastern city of Xiamen in the 1990s in one of China’s biggest political scandals in decades.

“I asked Steven Spielberg, who is a friend, to read the English script and recommend actors,” Zhang said at a press conference following the premiere.

Flowers’ female lead, newcomer Ni Ni, put herself out on a limb when asked if she felt a steamy scene between her character and Bale’s was necessary, as in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution — which had its sex scenes removed and earned a two-year industry ban for actress Tang Wei.

We Chinese are weird, weird people. We always expect something extra out of what we do. And that extra is a big deal. For example, when ancient historians wrote history, they were not content with just recording exactly what had happened, so they embellished it to show off their literary talent. The result is that we now read these historical records as literature - good literature though - without knowing for sure what exactly happened.

Another example: When we watch a movie, we not only expect it to be entertaining, but also want it to be educational. If it’s a historical film, we want it to reflect history as it was, although there is no way of ascertaining which version is the true one, because the historical records are more literary than realistic.

The first promotional trailer revealing the concept behind the upcoming movie “Chinese Zodiac”, co-produced by JCE Entertainment Ltd., Huayi Brothers and Emperor Mothion Pictures, was released on December 12.

Yu confirmed that Wong Kar-wai’s long awaited The Grandmasters, once scheduled to be part of this year’s Christmas crush, is still some months away from being ready. “It will be released some time between next summer and Christmas 2012.”

Shiu, who appeared smiling radiantly at a promotional event yesterday in Hong Kong, promised that she will explain the matter next time, which is taken to mean that she is silently admitting her marriage.

Sun Fei Fei walked away from a photo session on the red carpet without realising that TV host Fang Ling was stepping on her dress. Some netizens said her look of suprise looked too fake. This has led to speculation that this was all a publicity stunt. A1: More photos, and a gallery of wardrobe malfunctions:

A microcosm of China past and present flows through Xu Tong’s intimate docu “Shattered,” in which the maverick indie filmmaker continues to refine his techniques and concerns shown in his previous “Wheat Harvest” and “Fortune Teller.”

The film, provisionally entitled “To Our Youth That Is Fading Away”, will be an adaptation of the novel of the same name. It will tell the tale of a woman’s emotional struggle with two men whom she meets again many years after their on-campus love triangle.

Stanley Kwan will produce the movie. The film’s screenplay will be written by Li Qiang, whose 2005 film “Peacock” picked up a Silver Berlin Bear Award.

Based on the popular novel “To Our Youth that will Fade Away,” the story revolves around a girl named Zheng Wei, who becomes torn between two men; she is forced to make a decision to find her Mr. Right.

‘Shaolin Soccer’ star sticks up for friend Henry Tang Ying-yen, one of two candidates for Hong Kong’s highest office.

The comic mastermind also had his own words of wisdom on the possible negative impact on public support for Tang after Tang was discovered to have engaged in extramarital liaisons.

Chow deadpanned, “We’re trying to elect a chief executive here, not to choose a boyfriend.” [Herman Cain might want to borrow this line.]

Chow’s unopposed election to one of 15 seats for the performing arts subsector on the next Hong Kong chief executive election committee came at the last minute on the day before the application closed, after original candidate, 1990s “Heavenly King” of the Hong Kong pop music scene and actor Leon Lai (Forever Enthralled), was found to be ineligible.

Lai’s disqualification to run as the representative of the election committee for the performing arts subsector had made a mockery of the whole election process of the next chief executive, which will be selected by a 1200-member committee – the singer-actor was not eligible as he was not even a registered voter.

Director Chen Kaige is shooting his realistic Micro film “Search” in Ningbo of Zhejiang Province. Its scheduled release is in May of 2012. Chen will make three micro films before promoting them on the Internet.

Yao Di attending a launch ceremony in Sichuan for an 80’s-generation micro film (”Lost and Found”?)

The 32-year-old, who rose to fame as part of Taiwanese boy band Fahrenheit, quit the group in June and is now channelling his time into acting, having starred in best selling flicks like 14 Blades and My Kingdom.

American-Taiwanese singer-actor Peter Ho was recently detained by the customs at an airport in China because the customs officers found that he was carrying more than 100 boxes of condoms in his carry-on luggage

To show its ardent support for the preservation of film heritage, TVB has handed over about 1,000 film titles from the 1930s to the 1990s to the Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA) for permanent preservation. About 60 per cent of these archival films are new to the HKFA and will consequently greatly enrich its collection.

A message adorns the bottom of the picture[poster], which states: “Love while we are still alive; Say farewell when we have no more time.” The movie revolves around three tragic but romantic love stories

Award-winning actors Zhang Hanyu and Anthony Wong appear in the still photos of the movie “White Vengeance.” The megastars portray Zhang Liang and Fan Zeng, two famous strategists in ancient China who served different masters.

Legendary East is a joint venture established by Legendary Pictures and its partner the Huayi Brothers Media Corp. in June this year, which aims to produce and distribute English-language movies that have the potential to be worldwide hits.

Kelly shared that she is currently filming All’s Well, Ends Well 2012, but had rejected 20 to 30 other jobs because of her pregnancy. The singer also declined job offers, which required her to take a plane

After the accident, it was widely rumoured that Ham had helped Selina escape the fire. Other versions said that the actor had rushed into the burning set to save Selina. Thus, Ham’s fans had since blamed Selina for their idol’s injuries and some had even called her ungrateful.

Apart from being a shareholder of Ucan Technology, a company which is developing a 3D interactive social networking cum gaming website, Chou will be the website’s cultural ambassador for the next two years.

In China, Love is Not Blind has achieved the biggest opening box office for a local film this year. By Sunday night, the comedy had taken RMB188.0 million ($29.6 million) in six days.

The story tells of wedding planner Huang Xiaoxian’s 33 days of heartbreak after discovering that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with her best friend. Her maybe-gay colleague Wang Xiaojian helps her back on her feet.

Actress Bai Baihe

Director Teng Huatao yesterday at an event to celebrate the box office success

The costume heroine-themed war epic, “Legendary Amazons” recently released film clips exposing the lead actress Jin Qiaoqiao, who portrays a “Marksman” in the film.

Insiders report that Yang Zitong’s scenes have been deleted from “The Legendary Amazons”, unfortunately, due to the scale of violence in the film. Hopefully, her scenes will be restored in an unabridged Hong Kong version (?). She plays one of the Yangs and engaged in violent, bloody fights.

The romantic comedy “Love is Not Blind” has swept the mainland China’s box office charts, while in Hong Kong, director Giddens Ko’s romance “You are the Apple of My Eye” is making a history to by entering Hong Kong’s Top 10 Box-Office Records.

A Chengdu media preview screening of Barbara Wong’s “The Allure of Tears” left viewers satisfied but many described the film as more of a comedy, particularly the Joe Chen-Dou Xiao story. Director Wong said that she wanted to make a film for audiences to cry at but she did not achieve her purpose.

Gao Yuanyuan poses for animal protection in a photo spread featured in the magazine “ELLE”

Kelly Chen is reportedly four three months pregnant

Attending a fashion event today, she told reporters that she was pregnant and acknowledged that it was achieved through artificial insemination. Kelly has not suspended work and that doctors told her to relax and not be stressed. She said doctors feared that if she stayed at home she would be cranky. (Sina)

The 31-year-old model, who is also actor Aaron Kwok’s rumoured girlfriend, finally hit the big time after appearing in a racy advertisement for breast augmentation services, and was inundated with modelling assignments.

The photos feature Gigi Leung and Richie Ren as lovers studying in a music conservatory. The film also stars Zhou Dongyu, Aarif Lee, Shawn Dou and Joe Chan. It will hit cinemas globally on December 22.

Donnie Yen told media that thanks to his experience in the comedy movie “All’s Well Ends Well” last year, his comedy performance this time will be up to par, as he performs all kinds of dance in the movie including break dancing, Bhangra dancing and pole dancing. And elsewhere, Kelly Chen revealed that the always ultra-cool actor Louis Koo was naked for a couple of days on the set. “I’m not used to seeing him wearing clothes now,” she joked.

When pressed on his thoughts on the incident, Simon Yam, who played Aarif’s father in Echoes of the Rainbow, said, “Drink driving is wrong and very dangerous, especially to the driver and people on the roads. If Aarif did commit a mistake, he should apologise publicly and admit to his mistake. Only then will the public forgive him.”

“When Sam (Ricky’s brother) held his concert in Guangzhou, it was Ricky’s birthday. Together with thousands of the audience, we sang him a birthday song. That was the first and last time [we did that]. I had never sung him any birthday songs before,” Michael added.

“I will never do it, unless my figure is really good!” joked Cheng, in response to questions about whether she had ever taken intimate photos with Hui, like 16-year-old model Cammi Tse did with actor Edison Chen.

Proustian moment: The best were always sent fresh from NYC during holidays from relatives and family friends. The treats came in pale blue boxes wrapped in wax paper. And yes, the pre-packaged stuff, made nowadays, cannot compare!

Maggie Cheung said, “Either they are ones that love Wong Kar-wai and are just in that world or the ones go for Jackie Chan, you know. And I think they’re both as strong as each other actually, coming from, I’ve done both and I think it’s part of it. I just can’t think of Hong Kong cinema without one or the other, the action and the more mellow dramas or the more personal films.”

Zhang Ziyi has been reportedly confirmed as joining Jang Dong-gun in Heo Jin-ho’s remake of Dangerous Liaisons for a RMB$20 million fee. Unofficial reports have Cecilia Cheung joining for a RMB$16 millon fee. Filming is set to begin in September and the story has been reset in Shanghai. (Sina), 2, 3

Lu Chuan’s The Last Supper (aka King’s Feast) may be in serious trouble as major investor, Stellar Media, has reportedly pulled out. The reason is unclear but a number of reasons have been suggested: Stellar is focusing on another project, Peter Chan’s Guillotines, which has incurred additions expenses due to the shuffle of directors (Teddy Chen for Andrew Lau); Stellar was unhappy with the choice of one of the key roles, He Du Jean as the concubine; the film has also been in conflict/competition with a similar film, Daniel Lee’s White Vengeance. Lu Chuan and Stellar chief, Qin Hong, have engaged in a war of words via Weibo. (Sina), 2

July 19, 2011

Hey, isn’t that Wendi Deng Murdoch seated behind James and Rupert Murdoch testifying before a parlimentary committee? She, literally, leapt to her husband’s defense when a demonstrator attempted to hit Murdoch with a foam pie. Wendi jumped out of her seat and swung her arms to protect her man.

However, the figure is a little lower than that of its twin movie, “The Founding of a Republic”, which was released in 2009 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. That film brought in 125 million yuan in the first five days of its release.

“I was too busy finding the stars,” giggled 20-year-old college student Yu Lilli. “It was like [entertainment show] Xingyun 52. Me and my friends were in competition to see who could name the most celebrities.”

Asked about the film’s powerful narrative of struggle, Yu admitted she couldn’t remember much of the actual plot.

Cathy’s father-in-law, tycoon Lee Shau-kee, was said to have been so overjoyed with the arrival of his grandson, that he decided to hand out red packets, worth HKD$10,000 (S$1,600) each, to his 1,500 employees at the end of the month.